


The habit to come home late the year of graduation

by kobattsun



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, capitains in love, dumb teenagers, hints of Haru, hopeless Kisumi, naive Asahi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 18:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4972540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kobattsun/pseuds/kobattsun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shigino ponders that time seems to have slipped away in a blink of an eye from the day he found himself being a classmate of Haru and Asahi, and forming a trio of dysfunctional personalities, discordant and yet harmonious with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The habit to come home late the year of graduation

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic months ago, after reading the novel of High Speed 2! and i made some headcanons. And, well, what can i say? These two cuties are so beautiful and so stupidly in love during the whole damn novel that i want really to scream.
> 
> I also want to point out that: (1) the fic is set during the last year of their middle school and that means that Haru has already stopped to swim after the meeting with Rin when he returns from Australia; (2) I decided to put Asahi as the swimming team captain because during the novel he was appointed as representative of the freshmen of the club, so he will probably be the captain in his senior year.
> 
> Also, thanks to my Trashkawa that accepted to be my lovely beta. Lov u, shorty.

Kisumi hasn’t the habit of closing the gym at late hour; he is the captain of the basketball team, that’s true, he can have the keys when he prefers, that’s also true; yet, if it hasn’t been for the demand of the school’s female team to arrange the timetable for training, at this time he would have already been at home for a while, under warm blankets, watching his brother coloring with crayons everything that goes on in his mind.  
Kisumi hasn’t the habit of closing the gym so late and usually even that human case of Asahi Shiina doesn’t.  
Maybe that's why he is surprised to see him sitting on one of the starting blocks of the pool, staring toward some kind of future, with his hands in his lap to hold on a present that slips away like sand from his own hands.  
He sighs and takes a few steps forward, apparently unnoticed -Ehi.- he greets him with his hands in his pockets and shrugs, causing a rapid movement from the young man in front of him -Why still here at this hour? -  
The smile that he offers is his best one, but Asahi has never been one to get caught out by such signs of affection, or at least not with him. The redhead recovers from his astonishment and after a mumbled "ciaossu" gives a grimace in response, while Kisumi sits on the block next to him, without asking permission -I could ask you the same.-  
-Ah, commitments with the female team.- he shakes his head and chuckles nonchalantly -Jelous? -  
-Not even in a thousand years! - He says, then calms down and returns to look at the pool in front of them with a slight pout, but that lasts no more than a moment, because at the very moment in which Shigino has imprinted it in his memory, it’s already slipped away from his face, replaced by a bewildered expression.  
-It’s February.- observes Asahi with a disarming simplicity, and at first glance it seems a comment without logical connection, but for Kisumi it makes sense -I just really wanted to spend some time here.-  
It’s because it’s their last year, because he will graduate soon and his route will begin to disentangle from the others’, as it has already happened with Rin and Sousuke at the time. Shigino ponders that time seems to have slipped away in a blink of an eye from the day he found himself being a classmate of Haru and Asahi, and forming a trio of dysfunctional personalities, discordant and yet harmonious with each other; and still he remembers perfectly the lunchtimes they spent together on Haruka’s desk to escape from the girls, the cheers from the stands of the pool and those received on the court, with a pounding heart in his chest and the ball in his hands.  
-It’ll be strange to leave this place, because it contains so many memories that I cannot even remember all of them... ah, damn it.- the captain of the swimming club scratches his head, then gives him a sideways look, waiting.  
Asahi has grown so much from that nostalgic and distant first year of middle school that it’s almost hard to realize; he isn’t changed much physically, he’s tall and strong, sure, but he will never be a giant in height. That’s why Ikuya has now gained some necessary-to-tease-him-for-good centimeters, and neither his bedhair fired up towards the sky against any law of physics nor his daily milk carton seemed to compensate that lack.  
Asahi, Kisumi knows it, has grown more on the inside than on the outside, and despite the rude and clumsy ways that are proper to him he really became mature; the phoenix has risen from the ashes and laid the foundations for the future on a nest of braziers ready to flare up.  
-In the end we will go to different schools, right? -  
-Seems so.- he hesitates before going on -I heard from Makoto that he will go to Iwatobi with Haru.-  
-...Really? I see.- Asahi doesn’t dare to ask if his classmate plans to continue to swim, to start again in high school and Kisumi doesn’t ask in anyway; he knows how many troubles the swimming team had been through for all these years and even if he wasn’t part of it, he always found himself sharing their experiences one way or another.  
-Anyway ...- Asahi’s feets swing in a childish way, touching the surface of the water and sliding the edges of his pants rolled up to calf’s height -It will be weird not having you guys around anymore... expecially you.- Kisumi freezes, gasps and any response he had in mind evaporates as snow in the sun -So, that's ... uh? Hey, are you—  
The contact with the water surface is immediate and sudden and the captain of the basketball club doesn’t know who dropped first, who pushed down the other, or who clunged to the other, whether it was an involuntary reaction caused by the confession, embarrassment or whatever. He doesn’t have time to re-emerge, with his hand still clutching Asahi’s sleeve, before being silenced by a splash right in his face.  
-Are you stupid or what!? - The redhead shakes and yells while rubbing eyes -What the hell were you trying to—  
Kisumi doesn’t know if it’s because they are both soaked or that they are both in the February of their last sentimental year of middle school, but he cannot help but think that he must have a really pathetic expression if even Shiina Asahi, known to be instinctive and not having minced words, cannot be blunt. The boy opens his mouth, gasping and trembling.  
-I-I was serious! - Asahi blurts out so rapidly that Kisumi winces, and his grip on the redhead’s hand burns more than it should -I was serious when I said that ... my life will be too quiet without you around. -  
-... Say it better.-  
-Better…what? What are you saying now? -  
-That you’ll miss me.-  
This time the captain of the swim club almost chokes at the affirmation, leans forward, livid in face and denies until he feels his face burn -I have never said anything like that! -  
-But you meant it, didn’t you!? - somehow Shigino knows it, although perhaps Asahi himself didn’t notice it, considering how naive and unconscious he can be in certain situations.  
-S-Stop! You're embarrassing Bakisumi! -  
Silence falls without being uncomfortable and Kisumi can feel every word dying in his throat; he realizes that he doesn’t even feel the urge to hear his friend telling him something like this right now, because somehow Shigino knows that he means it, no matter if Asahi’s whisper is almost inaudible, because the boy has the flaw of screaming often and saying important things softly.  
-I’ll miss you, fuck.-  
And Kisumi believes to notice a shiny glow in his eyes, a living flame in those livid irises that reaches his cheeks, setting them on fire mercilessly while he’s listening to the boy choking any breath in a prickly insult while he covers his face with his forearm .  
-... Hey, are you seriously crying? -  
-It’s just some chlorine in my eyes, you idiot! -  
But it’s probably just a figment of his imagination.


End file.
